Friday, October 30, 2015

Orban Accuses Soros of Stoking Refugee Wave to Weaken Europe

Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused billionaire investor George Soros
of being a prominent member of a circle of "activists" trying to
undermine European nations by supporting refugees heading to the
continent from the Middle East and beyond.
"His name is perhaps
the strongest example of those who support anything that weakens nation
states, they support everything that changes the traditional European
lifestyle," Orban said in an interview on public radio Kossuth. "These
activists who support immigrants inadvertently become part of this
international human-smuggling network."
Rights groups have
criticized Orban for building a razor-wire fence on the border,
tightening asylum laws and boosting his support among voters with
anti-immigrant rhetoric. Soros, who was born in Hungary and is one of
the biggest philanthropists in eastern Europe via his foundations and
university, gives grants to organizations that provide legal assistance to asylum seekers.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Migrant flood changing Europe forever.........

Tony Abbott, Ousted Australian Leader, Urges Europe to Take Hard Line on Migrants

By AUSTIN RAMZYOCT. 28, 2015

Tony Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia, backed an aggressive policy on migration during his two years in office.

Tony
Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia, used his first major
speech since his ouster last month to denounce Europe’s migration
policies, warning in London that the continent risked “fundamentally
weakening itself” through “misguided altruism” as large numbers of
asylum seekers arrive.

“All
countries that say ‘anyone who gets here can stay here’ are now in
peril, given the scale of the population movements that are starting to
be seen,” Mr. Abbott, a conservative, said on Tuesday during a lecture honoring the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Mr.
Abbott backed an aggressive policy on migration during his two years in
office. The Australian authorities turned away boats and refused to
accept asylum seekers intercepted at sea, instead sending them to
offshore camps. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Mr. Abbott
in September in a party coup, has announced no change to those
policies.

Mr. Abbott recommended the same approach for Europe. “This means turning boats around, for people coming by sea,” he said.
“It means denying entry at the border, for people with no legal right
to come. And it means establishing camps for people who currently have
nowhere to go.”

Such
a tough policy would “gnaw at our consciences, yet it is the only way
to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly
changing it forever,” he said.

His
remarks came hours after the president of the Philippines, one of
several countries where Australia has hoped to send asylum seekers, said
the country would not accept them for permanent resettlement.

Mr.
Abbott has proposed Australia as a model for Europe’s migration
questions before, but never in so prominent a forum as the event in
London, a fund-raiser for a center dedicated to Ms. Thatcher’s life and
her politics that was attended by Conservative Party lawmakers and party
supporters.

His
comments were later endorsed by Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing
U.K. Independence Party, which is known for its anti-immigration stance.
Mr. Farage told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation that the former prime minister was “heroic” and “absolutely right.”

Refugee
advocates have criticized Australia’s policies, saying that migrants
have faced dangerous conditions in Pacific island detention camps. But
Mr. Abbott credits the approach, which was begun under previous
Australian governments, as stopping the flow of boats from Southeast
Asia.

Australia’s
overall immigrant detention numbers have steadily declined since 2013,
but the number of people held in offshore camps has dropped much less.
More than 600 people are still being detained on the small Pacific
island nation of Nauru, and more than 900 remain in a camp on Manus
Island in Papua New Guinea.

As
public criticism of the camps has increased, the Australian government
has tried with little success to resettle asylum seekers in third
countries. After just four people were sent to Cambodia under a $29
million agreement reached last year, Australia said this month that it was in talks with the Philippines.

That
plan has run into questions over the ability of the Philippines to
handle any sort of permanent resettlement. On Tuesday, President Benigno
S. Aquino III said his country could take refugees only on a temporary
basis. “We feel we are not in a capacity at this point in time to afford
permanent residency to these people,” he told a forum in Manila on Tuesday.

Philippine Leader Rules Out Resettlement

President Benigno S. Aquino III of
the Philippines said on Tuesday that his government is studying an
Australian proposal to send refugees to his country, but he said they
could not settle there.

Papua New Guinea said
last week that it would begin resettling people held on Manus Island
who are considered refugees, meaning that they fled war or persecution.
Australia praised the announcement, but it is unclear whether refugees
would accept permanent relocation to Papua New Guinea, which has high
rates of crime and unemployment.

The
offshore detention policy is facing a legal challenge before
Australia’s High Court, brought on behalf of people who have been taken
from the camps to Australia for medical treatment.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said
in a statement on Tuesday that the agency was “disturbed” by the
growing number of rape and sexual assault accusations made by detainees
on Nauru that have gone unprosecuted. He called on Nauru and Australia
to “provide a decent option” for a Somali detainee who said she was raped and is now pregnant.

The
woman, known by the pseudonym Abyan, “is in a very fragile mental and
physical condition and is deeply traumatized by her experiences,” Mr.
Colville said. She traveled to Australia this month after her lawyers
said she wanted an abortion, but was returned to Nauru without receiving
one.

On Wednesday, Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said Abyan would be returned to Australia soon
for treatment but declined to indicate when. “She should come to
Australia, not only to speak to a doctor in terms of the termination but
also to seek mental health services,” he told Sky News.

In
his London speech, Mr. Abbott argued that the people arriving in Europe
should be considered economic migrants, not refugees, even if they were
fleeing war in Syria or elsewhere, because they were no longer in
immediate danger.

“In
Europe, as with Australia, people claiming asylum invariably have
crossed not one border but many, and are no longer fleeing in fear but
are contracting in hope with people smugglers,” he said. “However
desperate, almost by definition they are economic migrants because they
had already escaped persecution when they decided to move again.”

Monday, October 26, 2015

“Greece: Attacks on Boats Risk Migrant Lives”

“(Athens) – Armed
masked men have been disabling boats carrying migrants and asylum
seekers in the Aegean Sea and pushing them back to Turkish waters, Human
Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch spoke to nine
witnesses who described eight incidents in which masked assailants –
often armed – intercepted and disabled the boats carrying asylum seekers
and migrants from Turkey toward the Greek islands, most recently on
October 7 and 9,2015. The witnesses said that the assailants
deliberately disabled their boats by damaging or removing the engines or
their fuel, or puncturing the hulls of inflatable boats. In some cases,
the boats were towed to Turkish waters.

“Disabling boats in the Aegean makes
an already dangerous journey even more likely to result in death,”
said Eva Cosse, Greece specialist at Human Rights Watch. “These criminal
actions require an urgent response from the Greek authorities.”

Human Rights Watch also found new
cases in which Greek border guards summarily returned migrants and
asylum seekers to Turkey across the land border at Evros.

On October 9, Human Rights Watch
staff witnessed an overloaded inflatable rubber boat adrift in the
waters between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos for more than an
hour, until a group of Spanish lifeguard volunteers set off on their own
boat to rescue them. Right after the rescue, 17-year-old Ali from
Afghanistan told Human Rights Watch that their boat had taken off eight
hours earlier for Lesbos from the Turkish shore at Assos, packed with
men, women, and children. But 30 minutes into their journey, a speedboat
suddenly rammed their rubber dinghy. On board were five men dressed in
black, their faces covered with balaclavas, armed with handguns.

Ali, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum
seeker stands wrapped in an emergency thermal blanket on the shore of
Lesbos island, having being rescued from an overcrowded rubber boat
which was attacked by masked, uniformed men and had its engine removed
and thrown into the sea.

“At first when they approached, we
thought they had come to help us,” Ali told Human Rights Watch. “But by
the way they acted, we realized they hadn’t come to help. They were so
aggressive. They didn’t come on board our boat, but they took our boat’s
engine and then sped away.”

The masked men attacked three other
boats in quick succession before speeding off toward the Greek coast,
Ali said. The boats were packed with asylum seekers mostly from
Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. The men wore no insignia on their black
clothing. “They spoke a language we didn’t know, but it definitely was
not Turkish, as we Afghans can understand a bit of Turkish,” Ali said.

Ali said a Turkish coast guard boat
approached and took the three women and six children from the rubber
dinghy, promising to return for the men on board. But the Turkish coast
guard did not return. Human Rights Watch staff also watched a Hellenic
Coast Guard (HCG) boat approach Ali’s rubber boat and circle around
before speeding away. People on a second boat with Afghans that arrived
in Lesbos the next day confirmed to Human Rights Watch that they were on
one of the other three other boats attacked on the previous day.

Three of the incidents described to
Human Rights Watch involved more than one witness. The accounts bore
many similarities. In two instances, people described seeing the boat
with the masked men being lowered from a bigger ship. In three of the
cases Human Rights Watch documented, the people interviewed said they
had seen the Greek flag on the boat carrying the masked men. In six
cases, witnesses said the masked men disabled or removed the engine or
its fuel. In two cases, the masked men punctured the boat. In three,
they towed the migrants and asylum seekers back toward the Turkish
coast. In all the cases, the stricken boats were abandoned without any
certainty that the occupants were safe. In four cases, migrants and
asylum seekers were beaten or otherwise subjected to violence.”

Humiliation for Cameron and Osborne as peers DEFEAT plan to slash tax credits for 3 million families

House of Lords voted on the government's tax credit proposals tonight

Labour and Lib Dem peers united to block the controversial measures

Unprecedented for peers to block a finance measure backed by MPs

House of Lords voted 289 to 272 to delay the changes for three years

Proposals are central to George Osborne's plan to eliminate the deficit

George
Osborne was left reeling tonight after peers dramatically threw out the
government's planned tax credits cuts - overturning the views of
elected MPs.

The
House of Lords voted 289 to 272 delay the changes for three years until
measures could be introduced to protect poor families.

The
tax credit cuts are central to the Government's plan to eliminate the
deficit by 2020 - saving £4.4billion from the welfare bill.

Downing
Street said the UK was in 'unchartered waters' after the vote, which
goes against centuries of tradition that the House of Commons decides
financial matters.

In
a highly-charged debate, a string of bishops queued up to attack the
'morally indefensible' cuts, which the Archbishop of York said would
force hard working families to turn to loan sharks.

One
Labour peer accused the Conservatives of having 'lied' before the
election. A number of Tories - including the former Tory chancellor Lord
Lawson - even spoke out against the measures.

Ministers
are now understood to be considering whether to bring the tax credit
cuts back in their current form – which would require another vote in
both the Commons and the Lords – or to attach them to another bill.

+5

The House of Lords voted 307 to 277 to
delay the changes for three years, despite them being central to George
Osborne's plan to eliminate the deficit by reducing the welfare bill by
£12billion

+5

+5

The
Conservative leader in the Lords, Baroness Stowell (left) promised that
George Osborne (right) would 'listen very carefully' to concerns about
the benefit cuts

WHAT ARE TAX CREDITS AND HOW MUCH ARE THEY WORTH?

Tax credits are monthly benefits paid directly into people's bank accounts to top up their wages.

They are two separate types - working tax credit for those on low pay and child tax credit for struggling families.

Parents over 16 can claim child tax credits - but earners must be over 25 to receive working tax credits.

Single
earners working full time without children can qualify for the benefit
if they earn less than £13,250 a year - or £18,000 as a couple.

A family with children earning below about £32,200 can claim child tax credit.

It
used to be that the more children you have, the more people could
receive - but new measures limit the benefit to two children.

The basic payment for a single claimant on working tax credits is £1,940 a year.

Single parents can receive an extra £2,010 on top of this.

To encourage work people who work more than 30 hours a week can receive an extra £810 - and disabled workers up to £2,970 more.

Overall, the average award of tax credit is £6,340 per year.

Child tax credit claimants get £545 a year as a flat payment - plus £2,780 per child for the first two children.

About 4.5million people claim tax credits - costing the government £30billion a year.

Tax credits were introduce in their current form by Gordon Brown as a way of topping up low wages and reducing child poverty.

At
the moment, families earning less than £32,000 can receive tax credits -
with the average payment amounting to £500 a month, or £6,340 a year.

Some 4.5 million families are in receipt of either working tax credits of child tax credits.

Under the government's proposals more than 3 million families will lose around £1,300 a year.

The
head of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson,
appearing in front of the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee
this afternoon, rejected government claims that other measures -
including a higher minimum wage and more free childcare - would
compensate for families' loss of tax credits.

He said: 'It's clearly the case that the significant majority of tax credit claimants will be significantly worse off.

'It's obvious that the majority will be worse off.'

It is unprecedented for the unelected House of Lords to block financial measures passed by MPs.

It
has sparked warnings that the Queen could be dragged into the crisis –
because she could be asked to create dozens of new Tory peers to give
the government a majority to pass the measures.

But
the Archbishop of York told peers they would be abrogating their
responsibilities by approving regulations without having the full facts
before them.

He
warned against driving working families into the hands of 'loan sharks'
by reducing their support. and said many low income households were
still worse off than in 2008.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked uproar in
Israel on Wednesday for suggesting that a World War II-era Palestinian
leader convinced the Nazis to adopt their Final Solution to exterminate
European Jews.
Holocaust experts slammed Netanyahu's comments as historically
inaccurate and serving the interests of Holocaust deniers by lessening
the responsibility of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Critics also said the
statement amounts to incitement against modern-day Palestinians in the
midst of a wave of violent unrest and Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Speaking to a group of Jewish leaders Tuesday, Netanyahu tried to use a
historical anecdote to illustrate his point that Palestinian incitement
surrounding Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site goes back decades.
He said the World War II-era Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Nazi sympathizer
Haj Amin al-Husseini, instigated Palestinian attacks on Jews over lies
that they planned to destroy the Temple Mount, known to Muslims at the
Noble Sanctuary.

(AP) People attend a demonstration demanding solidarity with Israel at the Brandenburg...Full Image

The
hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City, housing the Al-Aqsa Mosque
and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock, lies at the heart of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and completing claims over it are the
source of the current round of violence. It is the third-holiest site in
Islam and the holiest site in Judaism, where the two Jewish biblical
Temples once stood.
Netanyahu said al-Husseini played a "central role in fomenting the final
solution" by trying to convince Hitler to destroy the Jews during a
1941 meeting in Berlin.
"Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to
expel the Jews," Netanyahu told the group. "And Haj Amin al-Husseini
went to Hitler and said, 'If you expel them, they'll all come here.' 'So
what should I do with them?' he asked. He said, 'Burn them.'"
Historians quickly noted that the Nazi Final Solution was already well
underway at this point, with several concentration camps up and running.
Hitler had previously repeatedly declared his lethal intentions for the
Jews.
Moshe Zimmermann, a prominent Holocaust and anti-Semitism researcher at
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said Netanyahu made a "far-reaching
argument" for political purposes that didn't hold water. He said the
comments essentially made Netanyahu a Holocaust denier.

"Any attempt to deflect the burden from Hitler to others is a form of Holocaust denial," he told The Associated Press.
Al-Husseini was an enthusiastic Nazi supporter. But Zimmermann called
him a "lightweight" who was pleading with Hitler for assistance in
getting rid of the British Mandate and the Jewish immigrants coming to
the Holy Land. He said there was no evidence al-Husseini had any real
influence on Hitler.
Netanyahu has long been criticized for invoking the Holocaust when
talking about current affairs, alluding to it especially when discussing
Iran and its nuclear program.
The prime minister's comments come at a sensitive time, as he is
scheduled to travel to Berlin on Wednesday to meet German Chancellor
Angela Merkel. Netanyahu is also supposed to meet U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry there in new efforts to bring an end to a month-long
wave of attacks that have raised fears that the region is on the cusp of
a new round of bloodshed.
Netanyahu has repeatedly accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of
inciting the violence. But it didn't take long for angry reactions to
start pouring in Wednesday that Netanyahu went overboard by trying to
connect the Palestinians to the Nazis.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog called it a "dangerous historical
distortion" that plays into the hands of Holocaust deniers. He called on
Netanyahu to immediately correct his comments.
"It downplays the Holocaust, Nazism and the role of Adolf Hitler in the
great tragedy of our people," he said. "There was only one Hitler."
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said that "Netanyahu hates
Palestinians so much that he is willing to absolve Hitler of the murder
of 6 million Jews."
Even Netanyahu's loyal defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, distanced himself
from the comments in an interview with Israel's Army Radio.
"I don't know exactly what the prime minister said. History is actually
very, very clear," Yaalon said. "Hitler initiated it, Haj Amin
al-Husseini joined him and unfortunately the jihadist movements promote
anti-Semitism to this day, including incitement in the Palestinian
Authority that is based on the legacy of the Nazis."http://apnews.myway.com/article/20151021/ml--israel-holocaust-4c841bda04.html

CAIRO (AP) -- The head of the International Organization
for Migration says leaders must prepare the world for more diversity as
aging societies in the developed world and endemic youth unemployment
in the developing world drive demographic trends.

Speaking
at a meeting on migration in Cairo on Wednesday, IOM Director-General
William Lacy says northern societies need workers while "we have a
youthful, largely unemployed global south, with young people needing
jobs."

He says the world is bound to become more diverse in terms of culture, ethnicity and religion.

He
says, "Leaders who are not preparing their people for this, through
public education, public information, and awareness-raising campaigns,
just may not be doing their job."

NWN: And when they get old, we import even more unemployed,uneducated immigrants, who can't speak a word of English? Also, just how long will it take us to educate these 'immigrants' so they are 'fit' to be let loose doing all these jobs ?

This must mean a huge increase in our education system for all these immigrants ?

Will the time spent educating them differ, if we want them to be either ;

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

George Osborne has been challenged by Tories about the tax credit cuts

Boris Johnson has called for the measures to be eased on the poorest

But the Chancellor insists the cuts are needed to balance the books

Labour have called a special opposition day debate on tax credits today

Tory
MPs concerned about George Osborne's plans to cut tax credits have been
urged to join Labour in voting against the measures in the Commons.

The
Chancellor was challenged by Tory MPs about the £4.4 billion cuts as he
came under mounting pressure to make changes to the controversial
policy.

But
in a sign of defiance the Treasury released figures showing that
without the reforms to tax credits since Mr Osborne entered Number 11,
taxpayers would face a bill in 2016-17 of almost £15 billion more than
is currently forecast.

+3

Tory MPs concerned about George
Osborne's plans to cut tax credits have been urged to join Labour in
voting against the measures in the Commons

In
a late plea for support, shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith,
and the shadow Treasury chief secretary Seema Malhotra have written to
Tory MPs calling on them to back a Labour motion calling for the cuts
planned for April to be reversed.

They claimed that around three million working families will lose an average of £1,300 per year as a result of the cuts.

'This
issue transcends narrow party lines, as surely none of us came in to
politics to take money away from low and middle paid workers,' they
wrote.

'If
left to go ahead, the changes will make people significantly worse off
the length and breadth of the country, hitting thousands of people in
every constituency. This is why representatives of all parties have
raised concerns about this issue.'

Tory
unease about the plans was on display at a meeting of the 1922 Committee
of Conservative backbenchers, where Mr Osborne was questioned about the
measures.

In
an effort to underline the importance of the plans as part of Mr
Osborne's efforts to balance the books, the Treasury commissioned
analysis on the level of public spending on tax credits that would have
occurred without the Government's changes.

The
figures show that before Mr Osborne's reforms since 2010, including the
controversial cuts in July's Budget, spending on tax credits would have
risen from £28.9 billion in 2010-11 to £40 billion a year in 2016-17.

It is now forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility to be just over £25 billion in 2016-17 - around £15 billion lower.

+3

Labour have written to Tory MPs calling on them to back a motion calling for the cuts planned for April to be reversed

Treasury
Chief Secretary Greg Hands said: 'Labour has opposed every single
saving we've made in a welfare budget they let spiral completely out of
control.

'When
they left office, they had allowed means-tested payments to go so far
up the income scale that nine out of ten families - including MPs - were
eligible.

'Treasury
analysis now shows that without the reforms we have embarked on,
spending on tax credits would be rising to £40 billion next year.

Instead it's forecast to be £25 billion.

'That
£15 billion that we've saved - while at the same time offering working
people lower taxes and higher wages, thanks to our new personal
allowance of £1,000 from April and the new National Living Wage - is the
equivalent to £500 extra in income tax for every taxpayer.

'Labour must now explain where the money is coming from. Their economic policy lurches further from chaos to incredibility.'

Although
Tory MPs were elected on a manifesto commitment to cut the welfare
bill, some have concerns about the way tax credits will hit those in
work.

+3

Paul Johnson, director of the
Institute for Fiscal Studies, said George Osborne had 'decided to hit
people in work rather harder than people out of work'

Following
the meeting of the 1922 Committee in the Palace of Westminster, Tory MP
Steve Baker confirmed Mr Osborne had been asked about the issue. The
High Wycombe MP said: 'Lots of us don't like the tax credit changes.'

He
said MPs were aware they were part of a package, which also included
the new National Living Wage and the increase in the tax-free personal
allowance.

'But colleagues are well aware that some families will miss out,' he said.

'Lots
of us are very concerned about it but the vast majority of colleagues
accept that these changes are a consequence of all the other pledges we
made in the manifesto.'

A number of Tories expect Mr Osborne to come up with plans to reduce the impact on low-paid workers.

London
mayor Boris Johnson said he believed the changes were under 'intensive
review' while former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell also suggested Mr
Osborne may have to 'tweak' the plans.

Stevenage
MP Stephen McPartland - one of only two Tories to vote against the tax
credit cuts - said he believed Mr Osborne was preparing to take action
to soften the blow.

Mr McPartland told BBC Radio 4's PM: 'I genuinely believe that we will be able to persuade him to tweak the policy.

'I
believe he will because I believe he wants to look after those people
and it will just have been a matter of maybe nobody understood the full
impact.'

Mr
McPartland said that the prospect of a worker on GBP12,000 losing a
10th of his income 'doesn't sit right with me', adding: 'There were and
still are a number of Conservative MPs who are very unhappy about the
changes.'

Tory
peer and former Cabinet minister Lord Tebbit told the Times he
supported tax credit reform, but added it 'depends how far and fast you
want to go with this'.

He
said: 'Clearly there should be transitioning. We are all agreed about
that. Nobody is pulling the whole lot in one shot. The difficulty is to
decide what is right, because there isn't surety about the numbers.'

Paul
Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told BBC Radio
4's Today programme: 'These changes, they are certainly hitting people
further down the income distribution than the changes that were made
under the last parliament.

'But
the Chancellor made quite a big choice in the Budget. He has decided to
hit people in work rather harder than people out of work. So, he has
actually made the choice relatively speaking to protect some of the
poorest people on tax credits.'

He
added: 'Wherever we end up in 2017, it's still going to be a much more
generous system than we had back in 1997. The total level of spending
back to about 2003 levels, not back to a world before tax credits.'

Gang of yobs hurled bricks at fire engine causing crew to flee as they tried to tackle blaze in Oldham

Police condemn attack after firefighters were forced to leave the scene
and the vehicle has now been taken out of service for repairs

Violent yobs smashed a fire engine with bricks and forced its crew to flee.
A gang of around 20 people hurled the missiles at the vehicle while firefighters tried to put out a blaze in Oldham.
The engine was taken out of service for repairs following the attack, which broke the front window and nearside shutters.
The incident took place when a crew were called to a bonfire off Pitt Street, in Glodwick , at around 10.40pm on Saturday night, October 17.

Police
Sergeant Andy Wheeler said: “This is completely unacceptable behaviour
that could have seriously injured someone should they have been hit by a
brick. The fire engine itself was damaged with a window being smashed
and the nearside shutters.
“The crew were unable to deal with the
fire and were forced to leave. When they arrived at the station, the
fire engine was unable to be used and requires repair.
"It is
getting to that time of year when the fire service is called out more
and now, due to the actions of these individuals, a valuable resource is
off the streets.
“I would ask anyone who may have information as to who was responsible to contact police as soon as possible.”Anyone with information should phone police at Oldham police station on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

NWN: The MEN hasn't mentioned the perps descriptions. No surprises there. The area is Glodwick (pronounced Gloddick) and is the main Pakistani area in Oldham. This was the centre of the riots in 2001 in Oldham and a veritable no go zone at times. This would not be the first time the locals have attacked fire engines.

Cheap flights and low charges for using mobiles on holiday could be put at risk if Britain leaves the European Union, David Cameron has suggested.

The
Prime Minister said people who have doubts about Britain's relationship
with Europe should focus on the 'tangible consumer benefits' of being
part of the 28-nation bloc.

He
argued that he wants to 'have the best of both worlds', enjoying the
benefits of being in the EU while opting out of rules which could harm
Britain.

+2

Cheap flights and low charges for
using mobiles on holiday could be put at risk if Britain leaves the
European Union, David Cameron has suggested

Mr
Cameron has been forced to commit to publishing his key demands for
reform of the EU within the next fortnight after EU leaders said they
had been left in the dark.

The
government is committed to holding an in-out referendum by the end of
2017, with the Prime Minister focussing on four key areas: ensuring UK
sovereignty, improving competitiveness, protecting economies not in the
Eurozone and curbing benefits for migrants.

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He has
previously threatened that he could campaign to leave the EU if he does
not get a good deal, insisting he will 'rule nothing out'.

However,
in a marked change of tone Mr Cameron has begun to emphasise the
benefits of being in the EU as it currently stands – contrasting arcane
debates in Parliament about the wording of treaties with the real-life
savings for families.

'If
people who are wondering about Britain's relationship with Europe want
to see some tangible consumer benefits rather than the arcane things
that we can talk about in this House,' he told MPs last night.

The availability of cheap air travel in Europe have probably been among the biggest changes we have seen in the past 20 years

Prime Minister David Cameron

He
said this included cuts in air fares and the 'open skies policy' which
lets European and American airlines to fly between the two continents
without restrictions.

'The
availability of cheap air travel in Europe have probably been among the
biggest changes we have seen in the past 20 years,' he added.

'I
hope that the agreement we have recently come to on getting rid of
roaming charges will make it much cheaper for holidaymakers and Britons
to use their mobile phones abroad.

'We need to focus on some of these things.'

Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed the issue of the UK's in-out referendum
had been 'deferred yet again' to the December European Council meeting.

But
Mr Cameron hit back: 'That is simply not the case. This process was
launched in June, as I always said it would be, although people doubted
it would happen.

'There
was always going to be an update in October, and then a full discussion
in December - and that is exactly what is happening.'

+2

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed
the issue of the UK's in-out referendum had been 'deferred yet again' to
the December European Council meeting

Tory
arch Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash said one of Mr Cameron's principal
demands from the EU - to pull Britain out of the commitment to 'ever
closer union' - would in practice make little difference.

The
European Scrutiny Committee chairman said: 'Will you recognise that
even if the words 'ever closer union' were to be removed from treaties
for the future this will not change any of our existing EU obligations
and laws, nor fundamentally change our relationship with the EU under
existing treaties?'

Mr Cameron replied: 'I think the issue of ever closer union is important both symbolically and legally.

'Important
symbolically because I think the British people always felt we were
told we were joining a common market and we were never really told
enough about this political union which we've never been happy with.

'I want to make it explicit that for us it is principally a common market and not an ever closer union.

'But
it does have legal force because ever closer union has been used by the
courts to enforce centralising judgments and I want that to change.'

NWN: Haha ! Low cost flights ? Those went years ago, when the price of fuel rocketed. Cheap phone calls ? Most folk, when they go on holiday, don't spend their hard earned rest glued to the phone. And you can always use web phone or skype. Cameron shows himself up yet again !!!! Is that the best the pro-EU lobby can come up with ?

Monday, October 19, 2015

PEGIDA marches on 'first anniversary' in Dresden

At least 15,000 people have marched through Dresden to mark the
"anniversary" of the first PEGIDA demonstration. German Interior
Minister Thomas de Maiziere has condemned the movement as "hard
right-wing extremists."

Thousands of PEGIDA demonstrators descended upon the eastern German city
of Dresden on Monday evening, to mark a year since their first march
through the city.
A local student statistic group, "Durchgezählt," estimated that between
15,000 and 20,000 PEGIDA supporters gathered on Dresden's Theaterplatz
on Monday evening.
In a tweet shortly before the demonstration on Monday, Saxony state
police said "everything was very emotionally-charged" and asked
protesters to "stay calm, so the evening remains violence-free."
An hour into the march, however, German authorities reported clashes
between PEGIDA and the counter-demonstration on Dresden's Schlossplatz.
On nearby Theaterplatz, there were also assaults on police officers and
PEGIDA demonstrators.'We will triumph!'
Welcoming the crowds on Monday evening, PEGIDA co-founder Lutz Bachmann said he "had goosebumps."
"We came in order to stay and we will triumph!" he said.
A common theme among the chants and placard slogans on Monday was a strong sentiment against German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Merkel has to go!" was one of the first chants to be heard. A
photoshopped image of Merkel wearing a "nazi" uniform, with a euro sign
instead of a swastika on the red armband, was also seen in the crowd.

Thousands attend counter-demonstration
The anti-PEGIDA demonstration on Monday attracted an estimated 10,000
people, who marched through Dresden's city center on four different
routes.
"That's enough! Heart instead of hate!" the crowds were heard chanting.
Bringing a little humor to the evening was one anti-PEGIDA placard which
read: "Falafel instead of sausage."

'Hard right-wing extremists'
Speaking in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD on Monday,
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere condemned the PEGIDA
movement as "hard right-wing extremists" and urged people not to attend
the marches.
"Stay away from those people who are injecting this hatred, this poison into our country," de Maiziere said.
PEGIDA, whose name loosely translates as the Patriotic Europeans against
the Islamization of the West, held its first demonstration in Dresden
on October 20, 2014.
At its peak in January, the right-wing movement attracted a record
25,000 protesters, but numbers dropped dramatically to around 2,000
after a series of scuffles within the movement. Amid growing concern
over the German government's handling of the refugee crisis, however,
attendance has grown steadily in recent weeks.

An English village has been left 'overwhelmed' by asylum seekers, residents complained last night.

Longford
in West London is fast becoming a ‘transit camp’ for migrants from
Calais - with dozens arriving on coaches every day and being transferred
to houses, according to locals.

The
migrants are temporarily living in homes bought by hotel owners, after
property prices fell over concerns that the village could be demolished
for London Heathrow Airport’s third runway.

Scroll down for video

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New arrivals: Longford in West London is fast becoming a ‘transit camp’ for migrants from Calais, locals claim

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Finding a home: Dozens of migrants are arriving on coaches and being transferred to houses, residents say

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Moving in: The migrants are temporarily living in homes bought by hotel owners after property prices fell

The
properties are being rented out to the Home Office for asylum seekers,
with rooms available for £30 per person - or less if sharing, according
to an investigation by BBC Inside Out London.

Ray,
85, who lost his wife four years ago and has lived in the village for
50 years, said: 'I’ve got them either side of me. So they meet and they
have conversations in the middle of my front garden.'

He
added: 'We don't know where they've come from, we don't what they are,
and we're living next door to them - albeit they might be very nice
people.’

The
village - where homes face demolition if a third runway is built for
the world’s second busiest airport - dates back to the 14th century and
features several listed buildings.

Migrants
arriving there are said to have come from countries including Iran,
Eritrea and Syria - with many having passed through the ‘Jungle’ in
Calais, where about 4,000 people camp.

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Sitting outside: Migrants arriving in Longford are said to have come from countries including Iran and Eritrea

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Near the airport: One of the migrants admitted he had paid a trafficker €500 (£370) in Calais to get into Britain

One
of them, Mogdad from Sudan, admitted he had paid a trafficker €500
(£370) in Calais to get into Britain, telling the BBC: ‘I have no
choice. I have to get away from death.’

I am going to move from here, as soon as. It was good before the immigrants came

Rana Saif, Pakistan-born pub owner

But
Pakistan-born pub owner Rana Saif said the migrants were damaging his
sales, adding: ‘No one comes here, when they are standing 20, 80 people
outside on the road, on the walls.

'I am going to move from here, as soon as. It was good before the immigrants came.’

A
local hotel manager declined to comment, but he is said to have told
villagers during a recent meeting that in future a maximum of 40 asylum
seekers would be staying at any point.

A
Home Office spokesman said: 'The UK has a proud history of granting
asylum to those who need it, and we are committed to providing safe and
secure accommodation while cases are considered.

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Accommodation: Among the properties in Longford being used by the migrants is the Heathrow Lodge Hotel

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Historic: The village of Longford dates back to the 14th century and features several listed buildings

'Decisions
on the use of hotel accommodation, including which premises are used,
are made by individual contractors who bear the cost.

We don't know where they've come from, we don't what they are, and we're living next door to them

Ray, local resident

'We
have made clear to our providers that the use of hotels is only ever
acceptable as a short-term contingency measure. We are taking steps with
providers to ensure that this is the case.'

She
told MailOnline today that all applications for asylum are 'considered
on their individual merits', and that refuge will be given to those who
have a 'genuine need for protection', or a 'well-founded fear of
persecution'.

The
spokesman added that people who are found not to require protection in
Britain are expected to leave the country voluntarily - and the Home
Office will 'enforce their departure' if they try to stay.

Longford,
which had a village conservation area designated in 1988, is part of
the London Borough of Hillingdon and sits on the Berkshire border, next
to the River Colne and M25 and M4 motorways.

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Flight path: Homes in Longford face demolition if a third runway is built for the nearby London Heathrow Airport

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How it used to look: A view of The White Horse pub in Longford, taken more than six decades ago in 1954

The
sprawling Calais migrant camp known as the ‘Jungle' has grown rapidly
to now house more than 4,000 people - rising by around 1,000 since June
and almost tripling since September 2014.

I have no choice. I have to get away from death

Mogdad, migrant from Sudan

Many
of its inhabitants use the camp as a springboard to reach the UK by
sneaking onto lorries and Eurotunnel trains or simply walking across the
underground passageway.

The
once-desert area, home to 800 in 2009, has been transformed into a
small town with its own mosques, shops that sell food and cigarettes,
restaurants and even a bicycle repair shop.

Thousands
set up tents or slept rough in the ‘Jungle’ – where the entrance is now
guarded by barbed wire, armed police and dogs - with an ultimate goal
of starting a new life in Britain.

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Location: Longford, which had a
village conservation area designated in 1988, is part of the London
Borough of Hillingdon and sits on the Berkshire border, next to the
River Colne and M25 and M4 motorways

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Campsite: Many of the migrants arriving in the village are said to have passed through the 'Jungle' in Calais

They
began sneaking onto trucks and lorries crossing the English Channel in
July but when security was stepped up, hundreds stormed the tunnel every
night to walk the 31 miles to Britain.

MIGRATION TO UK BY NUMBERS

530,265 asylum claims in EU this year

636,000 people moved to UK from abroad in past year

307,000 people left Britain in past year

1,100,000 illegal immigrants in UK

8,000,000 foreign-born people in Britain

20,000 Syrians to be accepted in UK over next five years

At
least 13 migrants have died trying to cross the tunnel by foot in
recent months. Eurotunnel drivers say they are struggling to do their
jobs because they live in constant fear of killing another migrant.

Home
Secretary Theresa May warned last week of the perils of mass migration -
saying the huge foreign influx was not in the national interest and led
to lower wages and the loss of British jobs.

Based on the current influx, the UK needs to build 210,000 homes a year and find 900,000 extra school places by 2024.

Last
month a study revealed Britain experienced the third largest increase
in migrants of any major nation last year, with international migration
to the UK in 2014 hitting 558,800.

We have made clear to our providers that the use of hotels is only ever acceptable as a short-term contingency measure

Home Office spokesman

This was a 24 per cent increase on 2013, with only Israel and the Czech Republic seeing bigger rises.

Many
countries are expecting a large increase in migrants this year
following the humanitarian crisis in Syria, with the UK pledging to
accept up to 20,000 of them over the next five years.

It
was revealed last month that Kent County Council was caring for 720
unaccompanied children who have crossed the English Channel to Dover - a
rise from 630 at the start of August.

The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said 330,000
migrants arrived by sea in Europe in the first eight months of 2015,
including 210,000 in Greece and 120,000 in Italy.